Job recruiter reveals No. 1 skill she looks for that very few people have

A Google executive who used to interview people 40 hours a week has revealed the number one skill she looked for very few people have.

A Google executive who used to interview people 40 hours a week has revealed the number one skill she looked for very few people have.

A former Google Vice President has spilt on what was an instant red flag for her whenever she conducted a job interview for a future candidate.

After sitting through numerous interviews during her 10 year stint at the top tech firm, Claire Hughes Johnson revealed that two words could kill the interviewee’s chance at scoring the prestigious job.

In a piece penned to CNBC, Ms Johnson explained that using the words “I” or “we” too much made her suspicious of the candidate.

Using “I” too much could indicate they were self-absorbed, while inversely, slipping “we” into too many answers might mean they had achieved little by themselves and not taken initiative for any projects.

Ms Johnson acknowledged it was a hard balance to strike but crucial to nabbing a job.

And the number one thing she did not want in a candidate, she emphasised, was lack of self awareness.

“I always had one skill that I looked for in candidates before anything else: self-awareness,” she wrote.

“Sure, your experience and skills matter, but they can be learned. And when someone is highly self-aware, they’re more motivated to learn because they’re honest about what they need to work on. They also relate better to their colleagues and managers.”

Avoid using “I” and “we”.

Ms Johnson said she would sometimes spend up to 40 hours a week interviewing potential hires.

“I always watch for two words: Too much ‘I’ is a red flag that they may not be humble or collaborative; too much ‘we’ may obscure what role they played in the situation,” she said.

“There needs to be a balance.”

Self-awareness is a “rare trait”, she warned.

Research dating back to 2018 found that although 95 per cent of people identify as being self-aware, the real numbers are much lower.

Only 10 to 15 per cent of the population actually have self-awareness.

For Ms Johnson, a staff member who lacked self-awareness became a liability on her team.

She said this worker would end up disagreeing with feedback and would grow frustrated at their team and the direction their team’s projects were heading in.

The former Google employee has shared some tips.

Ms Johnson worked at Google for over a decade.

It comes as tech and finance firms around the globe have undergone mass lay-offs as tough market conditions hit the sector.

In late January, Google’s parent company Alphabet cut 12,000 jobs globally.

The reduction represented a little over six per cent of its total 187,000-strong global workforce.

Many have also put a pause on hiring new workers, including Google. In fact, earlier this week, the technology giant announced it would be promoting fewer people in a cost-cutting initiative.

Closer to home, Australia’s job market has tightened.

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, the unemployment rate was at an all-time low of 3.5 per cent and is not expected to be seen again for another generation.

But as of January, that number rose slightly to 3.7 per cent.

Originally published as Job recruiter reveals No. 1 skill she looks for that very few people have